Students addressed a wide range of concerns in their exit interviews. One repeating problem involved course availability:
- While there are a wide variety of courses listed, many of these courses are not offered often enough, so that students are forced to work around the regulations. I would have liked to have seen more creative writing opportunities, as they would have been more valuable to me.
I really wanted to take the "professional writing" course - but, it just didn't work out - wasn't offered.
A course in Creative Non-fiction would be useful to me in my future writing attempts, as I want to mix fact into my novels.
Grads shouldn't have to take courses with undergrads - just how I feel.
Another area that elicited comments was the structure of creative writing classes: "I'm not sure I believe in the 'writer's workshop' format anymore," one student commented. There were positive comments, "All the instructors are great people," and "I felt 100% support and encouragement, personally and academically."
Comments about the teaching component of the program, for those who had a graduate assistantship, indicate problems with preparation. One student commented, "I was completely unprepared for my first teaching experience," and another said, "Teaching was much more demanding, stressful and time consuming than I thought it would be. I wasn't well prepared, personally or by UNK."
Nonetheless, comments did stress the valuable contribution the students felt the MA program would make to their future careers:
- Without my graduate study I wouldn't be able to fulfill my plans which are to teach at the college level, even if that means community college, and, you know, I really am a much more polished and professional writer now.
I feel well prepared for my life.